Working together to understand , bring awareness and help to those victims of Earth’s Natural Dynamic of Change and Cleansing in her eternal voyage though the galaxy and prepare ourselves for the coming events…

Although the overall number of earthquakes recorded on the United States Geological Survey’s real time earthquake map for the week of 12-18 September isn’t significantly different from the previous week, it was nevertheless relatively quiet at the top end of the scale with just one earthquake of at least magnitude 6 (≥M6.0) and 18 of ≥M5.0.

These larger tremors were scattered across the globe, with noteworthy events on ocean ridges in the South Atlantic and eastern Pacific and tremors in Greece and Georgia.

The Week’s Largest Earthquake: M6.1 Alaska

At just M6.1, the largest earthquake of the week was nothing out of the ordinary, particularly not for its location. Along with three more of the ten largest tremors, this quake represents an aftershock from the M7.0 which struck on 30 August.

So far there have been around 60 aftershocks of at least M4.5 and over 300 of all magnitudes. The repercussions of major shocks such as this can be expected to carry on for weeks or even months.

Continental Breakup: M5.0, Eritrea

Satellite view of the Afar Depression, site of a crustal triple junction. The M5.0 earthquake occurred to the north. Image credit: NASA

Arguably the most interesting earthquake this week is the M5.0 which occurred in Eritrea. Geologically, this area is fascinating: A rising plume of rock sourced from deep within the earth is lifting the crust and will in time initiate continental breakup of Africa, with a new ocean forming between Ethiopia and Sudan.

The M5.0 of 18 September had its epicentre in Eritrea, north of the main hot spot.

This region is known as a triple junction, with ocean ridges along the axes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden already splitting Arabia from Africa and creating new ocean crust. The third arm, the East African Rift, propagates southwards to become the Great Rift Valley. With such dynamic processes in action, it’s unsurprising that this area is characterised by extensive volcanism and accompanied by earth tremors, although large earthquakes in the area are rare.

US Earthquakes: The Western States

Earthquakes in the western US show its geological structure. Image credit: USGS

The majority of significant earthquake activity in the States this week continued to be in Alaska. Elsewhere there was no outstanding noteworthy event, but this in itself offers an opportunity to look at the overall pattern of tremors and to get some idea of the relationship between earthquakes and topography.

The San Andreas fault zone, a major plate boundary, is clearly dominant but other, older margins are equally important.

To understand the complex geological history of California, even at a very simple level, we need to understand that the US west of the Rockies is made up of various geological blocks which over time have ‘docked’ with continental North America. The boundaries of these blocks are structurally relatively weak – as is indicated by the broadly linear pattern of seismic activity. It’s also worth noting the scattering of tremors in and around Montana-Idaho-Wyoming, which results primarily from volcanic activity associated with the Yellowstone hot spot.

Creative Processes Cause Earthquakes

The Eritrean earthquake, and its association with the Afar mantle plume, is exciting because it reminds us that earthquakes are not merely part of a destructive process – even though most major tremors are associated with subduction and melting of oceanic crust. The constructive processes by which new crust is created also involve enormous crustal forces and, as a result, are capable of generating noteworthy earthquakes.

Friday, September 13, 2013

A woman looks at the flooded Boulder Creek in Boulder, Colorado, on Thursday, September 12. An estimated 6-10 inches of rain fell during 12-18 hours along Colorado's Rocky Mountain Range, from Boulder south to Colorado Springs, causing residents to be evacuated, washing out roads and killing at least three people.

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Flash floods hit Colorado

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: President Obama signs emergency declaration

Two swept away from stranded car, one body recovered

National Guard reaches town of Lyons, cut off by rising water

Some residents must decide whether to flee over possibly damaged bridges

Boulder, Colorado (CNN) -- Emergency crews struggled with rushing water -- and still more rain -- Thursday night as they tried to reach people stranded by a flash flood blamed for at least three deaths along Colorado's Rocky Mountain range.

As Governor John Hickenlooper noted, Coloradans went to bed Wednesday night with no inkling that overnight rain could be heavy enough to flood canyons and send rivers of water from Boulder south to Colorado Springs.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said the "devastating storm" dumped more than half a foot of rain on the region during a 19-hour period.

The widespread flash flooding washed out roads, pushed dams to their limits and beyond and killed at least three people.

And late Thursday President Barack Obama stepped in.

Obama signed an emergency declaration for Colorado, an action that helps allocate federal assistance to the issue.

There were dramatic rescues Thursday, including a man pulled from an overturned car in rushing water on live television. But for much of the day, rescuers had to wait at the edge of impassable roads or for skies to clear enough for helicopter flights.

Rescuer: We hoped for the best in flood

Man trapped in flooding, overturned car

Mom and daughter stuck in hail, flood

Deadly flooding in Colorado

Helicopters were still grounded as of 6 p.m. MT Thursday, said Ashlee Herring, a spokesperson for the city of Boulder.

The forecast was not encouraging. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning "until further notice" for Boulder Creek Thursday evening.

The worst of the reported damage has come in Boulder County, where the National Weather Service reported that a 20-foot wall of water roared down a mountain canyon north of the city.

One death was confirmed and another feared after a car stopped in the rushing water. Witnesses reported a woman emerged from the car and was swept away by the water. A man left the car and tried to reach her and also was overcome, Boulder County Sheriff's Cmdr. Heidi Prentup said. She said the man's body had been recovered, while the woman was missing.

Bodies also were found in a collapsed home in Jamestown and on a roadway in Colorado Springs.

Lyons, a small town of 2,000 near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, was cut off by what city officials described as a 500-year flood.

People were using the city's Facebook page to search for loved ones, hunt for medicine and even ask for pet food. One post described people riding to safety on a backhoe.

National Guard rescuers in high-water vehicles reached Lyons with humanitarian aid Thursday night, Prentup said, but the town remained otherwise cut off.

City officials used Facebook to appeal to residents to take in people and pets who were sheltering at an elementary school because they feared the school would lose power Thursday night.

One Lyons resident said it was "almost amusing" to see news video of "debris here and there" in other cities. "They haven't seen this stuff here yet," she wrote. Photos on the Facebook page showed swirling water halfway up street signs and a washed-out bridge.

Elsewhere, homes collapsed onto residents and a dam in Larimer County broke, flooding some homes and leaving three people trapped, a county spokesman said.

Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said some residents there face the dilemma of whether to try to move to safer shelters over bridges that may have been damaged. They will "have to use their own judgment," he said.

An emergency message from the sheriff's office to residents of Big Thompson Canyon said, "If you are cut off because of a compromised bridge, you need to stay at your residence but have a plan to get to higher ground at a moment's notice."

Pelle said emergency crews were worried about a Lyons Fire Department crew stuck on a mountainside near a washed-out road. Hypothermia from the cold, wet conditions was of particular concern, he said.

As of Thursday evening, authorities in Boulder had not been able to make contact with the Lyons Fire Department to confirm that the firefighters had been rescued, Herring said.

Frustrating night

As dawn broke over the region, Pelle said he was "amassing a large-scale effort" to rescue those who are trapped, reach those who are stranded and deliver much needed aid to places like Lyons, where floodwater overtopped several dams protecting the town.

Hickenlooper said later in the day that two National Guard Black Hawk helicopter search-and-rescue crews were sent to Boulder County, along with three swiftwater rescue teams and emergency managers. One helicopter and emergency managers were dispatched to Larimer County.

Hickenlooper said the state didn't immediately need outside help. The problem was reaching the most critical areas.

Rescuers have been frustrated by debris, impassable roads and mudslides, Pelle said.

"This is not your ordinary disaster," Pelle said. "All the preparation in the world, all the want-to in the world, can't put people up those canyons while debris and walls of water are coming down."

Unusual storm

The rain started falling in earnest about 6 p.m. Wednesday and continued into Thursday, sometimes at the rate of about an inch an hour, according to radar estimates. That added up to about 6 to 7 inches of total rainfall.

"The rain, it almost feels like hail, the drops are so thick," University of Colorado Boulder student Ryan Colla told CNN affiliate KUSA. "It just keeps coming and coming, and when you think it's going to subside, it starts to rain down harder."

The sudden influx of water turned Boulder Creek -- which runs through the campus and other parts of the city bearing its name -- into a high, fast, muddy and dangerous torrent, Colla told the station.

"It freaked us out," he said.

At its peak, Boulder Creek was flowing at 16 times its normal rate for this time of year, city spokeswoman Sara Huntley said.

But that was not the only stream causing trouble, Pelle said. Unlike the last devastating flood in Boulder in 1969, this storm caused virtually every waterway in the area to overflow, he said.

Water rushed through Aurora, east of Denver, swirling and breaking like an ocean hitting a beach. CNN affiliate KCNC captured video of one person stumbling dangerously while trying to cross an Aurora street and finally struggling at the edge of the water. Three onlookers pulled that person to safety.

In Estes Park in Laramie County, KCNC video showed the Big Thompson River rushing above both sides of a bridge and flooding several small businesses.

Between 25 and 30 roads were closed Thursday afternoon in Boulder County, Prentup said.

Several roads washed away, including one near Lafayette -- about 12 miles southeast of Boulder -- where rescue crews staged the dramatic rescue of a man from an overturned, partially submerged car.

Lafayette Fire Chief Gerry Morrell said it appeared three cars driving through pre-dawn darkness and heavy rain plunged into the void left when water washed out the road. Two other motorists got out of their cars, at least one with the aid of firefighters.

At first, rescuers feared the last car's occupant may have died after more than 30 minutes in the partially submerged car, Morrell said.

The rescue -- captured live on television -- nearly went awry when the car, which had been pulled up so that it was on its side, turned back onto its roof in the swift water just as the man was preparing to climb through a window broken open by his rescuers.

"I was aghast," said Morrell, who watched the rescue unfold from the riverbank.

All three people were taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries, according to fire officials.

A firefighter in Boulder had to climb a tree to escape the initial surge of water. Although injured, the firefighter made it to a nearby home, Prentup said.

In Lyons, water was flowing over the tops of five dams, Boulder County spokeswoman Gabi Boerkircher said. The dams had not broken, but emergency officials were monitoring them very closely, she said.

The extent of the damage was widespread but difficult to pin down, Pelle said.

"We've lost roads, we've lost bridges, cars, homes," he said. "And we are just now trying to assess the scope of the damage."

Hickenlooper said he will ask President Barack Obama for an emergency declaration, a step toward federal funds to help repair damaged roads, bridges and wastewater plants.

'Not a day to travel'

While at least one shelter was filling up, emergency officials said they had asked few people to evacuate because of the danger of driving through floodwater. The only active evacuation order was in the city of Jamestown, Prentup said.

"This is no day to travel," he said. "It's a good day to hunker down and watch the news and find out what's going on."

Many roads in the county were closed or impassable, and city and county offices, schools and even the university were closed Thursday. They will remain closed Friday.

At the university, about 40 buildings sustained mostly minor damage, campus police spokesman Ryan Huff said. School officials had to move 355 graduate students and research faculty members from family housing units because of flooding.

The school also had to relocate 21 undergraduates from two residence halls, he said. The rooms of 11 were so badly damaged, they will have to move for the semester, he said.

Monday, September 9, 2013

The interior of an Atlas Survival shelter made of galvanized corrugated pipe is showcased at the plant in Montebello, Calif., Aug, 12, 2013.

Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo

In the backyard of his remote Southern California home, Bernie Jones is etching an unconventional blueprint: a construction plan to build his underground survival shelter. It won't be the typical, cramped Cold War-era bunker. It will hold 20 people.

Part of a small but vocal group of survivalists in Menifee, some 80 miles east of Los Angeles, Jones, 46, has pushed for the right to build a bunker on his 1-acre property for nearly a year. He wants to be ready for anything, be it natural disaster or a nuclear attack.

"The world is taking a change," he says. "I want to be prepared. I want my family to survive."

Residents of the small city once known for its farming and mining can begin applying for permits to build their subterranean housing this month after the City Council passed a hotly contested ordinance allowing the practice.

Americans have been building underground bunkers for decades, their interest in such shelters waxing and waning with current events. Many dug backyard fallout shelters during the Cold War, fearing a nuclear war.

This next generation of bunkers comes as many survivalists face heightened concerns of a terrorist attack, economic meltdown and for some, even solar flares or meteor showers.

"The bunker is a type of security blanket," says Stephen O'Leary, an expert in apocalyptic and end-of-the-world theories at the University of Southern California. "They are concerned with what's happening in the world on a massive scale."

The move to allow below-ground bunkers has created waves among city officials who are concerned with earthquake faults in the area, safety of police and first responders answering emergency calls and the potential for owners to hide criminal activity, such as drug manufacturing.

"Most people are going to use their bunkers for good reason, but you do have some sick people out there," Deputy Mayor Wallace Edgerton says. "Children have been held in bunkers."

In February, a 5-year-old boy was held hostage for six days in an Alabama underground bunker, which was rigged with explosive devices.

City Councilman Tom Fuhrman calls the ordinance a victory for property rights, not for those looking to break the law. "Criminal activity isn't going to be stopped by not allowing people to build bunkers," Fuhrman says. "A criminal will find a place to commit crime."

There are signs survival bunkers are making a comeback throughout the country.

Ronald Hubbard, who runs Atlas Survival Shelters near Los Angeles, ships his luxury bunkers out of state. Unlike Cold War-era shelters, he builds ones that are half the length of a basketball court and have a master bedroom, dining nook and a couch to watch a 47-inch flat screen TV.

Hubbard says his phones rang nonstop last December as people attempted to prepare for the end of the world that never came. A 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan calendar passed by, sans disaster.

The Perseid meteors soaring through the sky last month had customers calling him constantly, looking for a way to stay safe in case one hit Earth — even though it's an annual celestial event. He insists his customers are practical people — not radical doomsday preppers.

"I'm not fear mongering," Hubbard said, standing beside a $65,000 shelter in his warehouse. "Why do we buy insurance? Just in case."

The Vivos shelter networks in Indiana and Kansas offer the equivalent of doomsday timeshares in underground communities in the event of the apocalypse. The network aims to protect its inhabitants for up to a year from myriad catastrophes, including a nuclear disaster.

Preppers — who dedicate their time to ensuring they are ready for a host of deadly scenarios — even have their own reality TV show.

People should spend time preparing for likely disasters instead of Armageddon, said Steve Davis, president of emergency management company All Hands Consulting.

"In California, you have earthquakes. On the East Coast, you have winter storms," Davis says. "People should be focusing on basic preparedness."

Jones, who has six children and seven grandchildren, says he simply wants to protect his loved ones. The contractor has already stocked his home with medical kits and enough food for his family to survive for about three months should a disaster strike.

He keeps a bag in his truck packed with five days' worth of food and water, a raincoat, a thermal and "the world's smallest sleeping bag."

About Me

Prof. Muse Tegegne has lectured sociology Change & Liberation in Europe, Africa and Americas. He has obtained Doctorat es Science from the University of Geneva. A PhD in Developmental Studies & ND in Natural Therapies. He wrote on the problematic of the Horn of Africa extensively. He Speaks Amharic, Tigergna, Hebrew, English, French. He has a good comprehension of Arabic, Spanish and Italian.